Marin Humane: What you need to know about living with coyotes

“I was stalked by a coyote!” “It’s only a matter of time before a coyote attacks a child!” “Coyotes must be eradicated from Marin!” These are all comments made in the past few months by Marin County residents. As the fear reached a fevered pitch, the City of Mill Valley decided to have an educational forum on coyotes to dispel myths, provide data and educate residents about how to peacefully and safely coexist with these important apex predators.

Among the speakers was David Herlocker, an interpretive naturalist with Marin County Parks. After working with them for several years at the San Francisco Zoo, Herlocker knows a lot about coyotes.

“Coyotes, which are native to California, are probably the smartest animals I’ve worked with,” he says. “They’re curious, adaptable, and learn quickly. So it’s up to us to teach them the right lessons. If we teach them that humans are an easy source of food — either through the fruit we leave on the ground, the pet food we leave outside or our cats, which we let outside — they’ll want to come closer to us. But if we make our homes less attractive and actively discourage them, they’ll get the hint and move on.”

The forum’s speakers addressed several myths regarding coyotes:

• “I saw a coyote in the middle of the day so there must be something wrong with it. Maybe it has rabies.”

Contrary to popular belief, coyotes are diurnal, so seeing them during the day does not mean they’re acting out of the ordinary. And in California, rabies is extremely rare in coyotes.

• “I was on a hike and was stalked by a coyote!”

Coyotes are naturally curious so they’ll sometimes watch humans or other animals, but this behavior is not stalking. Coyotes are also extra watchful when protecting their newborn pups so it may be a sign you’re near a den.

• “I hear large packs of coyotes yipping and howling over their kills.”

Coyotes vocalize in a layered way, which makes it sound as if there are many in a group when, in fact, it’s usually just two or three. Coyotes rarely vocalize while killing prey.

• “My cat is missing. It must have been eaten by a coyote.”

While this is one possibility, being hit by a car is much more likely to be the cause of a domestic cat’s death, followed by attacks by domestic dogs, other cats and simply becoming lost.

• “Coyotes will go after big dogs.”

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It would be highly unusual for a coyote to attack a medium- to large-size dog. What is often the case is that a person unknowingly walks his or her dog close to a coyote den during pupping season and the coyote tries to warn the dog away — sometimes through a small attempted nip on the haunch or leg, like a cattle dog would do while herding sheep. However, small dogs should always be kept on leash.

• “Our children are at risk of getting attacked by coyotes.”

There has never been an attack on a human by a coyote reported in Marin. Of course, babies and small children should never be left unattended due to myriad everyday risks that are out there.

Keli Hendricks, of Project Coyote, and Cindy Machado ,of Marin Humane, added important information regarding hazing, which means using deterrents to move an animal out of an area or discouraging an undesirable behavior. Yelling, raising your arms, jumping up and down, honking your car horn or spraying water out of a hose in their direction are great examples of hazing.

For animal lovers, it can seem counter-intuitive to haze wildlife. It may even feel “mean.” But the reality is, if you love wildlife, it’s your responsibility to help keep it safe, which means keeping it farther away from us pesky humans.

Lisa Bloch is the marketing and communications for Marin Humane, which contributes Tails of Marin articles and welcomes animal-related questions and stories about the people and animals in our community. Go to marinhumane.org, Twitter.com/marinhumane, or email lbloch@marinhumane.org.